1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular electronic control apparatus with at least a portion of control data therefor remaining unspecified when the process for manufacturing thereof is finished, and permitting control data corresponding to a specific specification to be specified at a later stage. Further, the invention relates to a method for setting a control specification for the vehicular electronic control apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-open (Kokai) Patent Application Publication H04 (1992)-092734 discloses a vehicular electronic control apparatus in which a plurality of control specifications are previously stored, and one of the control specifications is selected to execute the control.
Japanese Laid-open (Kokai) Patent Application Publication No. H08 (1996)-237772 discloses a technique in which a plurality of electronic control devices mounted on a vehicle mutually diagnose failures, and if a first electronic control device which sends data is failed, a second electronic control device which receives the data carries out control by using a default value.
In the case of a vehicular electronic control apparatus of which the manufacture is finished in a state where at least a portion of control data is unspecified during the production of the electronic control apparatus, so that information of a specification is taken therein afterwards from an outside to determine the control specification, if the power is turned ON to carry out taking-in of the specification information, a normal control operation is not yet carried out because the control specification is not determined.
Hence, when the electronic control apparatus includes a self-diagnosing means and an associated means for transmitting the result of self-diagnosis done by the self-diagnosing means to the outside, since the normal control operation does not take place, the self-diagnosing means will determine that a condition is abnormal due to its self-diagnosis operation, and such an abnormality determination result will necessarily be outputted by the associated transmitting means to the outside.
Nevertheless, under a condition such that the control specification has not yet established, determination of occurrence of any abnormal state should not be made by the self-diagnosis operation, and therefore if any abnormality determination result is outputted to the outside, an unfavorable problem may occur such that an erroneous result of the self-diagnosis is stored and unnecessary control operation may start, based on the erroneous result of the diagnosis.